Lamotrigine in the Treatment of Depersonalization Disorder

Letter to the Editor

Sir: It has been proposed that excitatory amino acids such as glutamate might be relevant to the pathophysiology of depersonalization. For example, subanesthetic doses of ketamine, whose effects might be mediated through increased glutamate release, can induce many of the subjective experiences characteristic of depersonalization. Furthermore, pretreatment with lamotrigine, a drug reported to inhibit glutamate release,3 has been found to attenuate these effects of ketamine. We report here on 6 patients with chronic depersonalization disorder in whom treatment with lamotrigine as an add-on therapy brought about a significant clinical improvement.